Upcoming H.E.R.O. game

[Mike]

Mike,

The C64 backgrounds could sometimes make the miners hard to see, but apart from that added a lot of atmosphere to the game - they did look like mossy/rocky walls, etc...

bjonte did already mention this, but let me elaborate further: the VIC-I chip in the VIC-20 has only half the resolution, no sprites and a more restricted choice of simultaneously displayable colours. Also, all 256 characters of the user defined character set are already in charge.

Even if it was possible to re-organize the character set to free up background characters - the rather detailed background graphics would require the use of multi-colour mode to have at least one extra colour available that sets the player character apart from the background graphics. Currently, the player character is drawn in hires mode, and the colouring is done with raster effects (changing the corresponding colour RAM values mid-character vertically!). If it was drawn in multi-colour, it would appear much more coarse.

Keeping the fine resolution (actually the same resolution as on the 2600 and C64!) of the player character thus had been bjonte's given design choice.

Since it's a spare time project and it's not done it's hard to estimate reliably. It depends a lot of my ambitions regarding the introduction screen also. It's probably months away.

I hope you can make good use of the tools made available here in Denial. MINIPAINT and its assorted tools would be my weapon of choice for the title screen and the library routines in MG BROWSE could take the part of displaying the instructions in a READ ME file.

Greetings,

Michael

[groepaz]

BTW, you can load up the game on the C64 and then save whatever it displays as a screenshot in Minipaint format - that might help with producing a first crude version

[bjonte]

Keeping the fine resolution (actually the same resolution as on the 2600 and C64!) of the player character thus had been bjonte's given design choice.

Yes exactly! The whole design is based on making the main character in colored hires mode to show off the VIC20’s capabilities.

[bjonte]

I hope you can make good use of the tools made available here in Denial.

Thanks, I’ll have a look at these!

[bjonte]

BTW, you can load up the game on the C64 and then save whatever it displays as a screenshot in Minipaint format - that might help with producing a first crude version

Interesting idea! I wasn’t aware of that direct VIC20 support. Or is Minipaint a multiplatform application?

[Mike]

[...] is Minipaint a multiplatform application?

MINIPAINT itself is a native VIC-20 paint program. Its file format though allows for flexible import and export facilities, implemented and running on either VIC-20 or PC. The batch suite for example includes simple import tools for *.pgm and *.ppm files.

Interesting idea! I wasn’t aware of that direct VIC20 support.

Some time ago, groepaz asked about native (and preferably executable) picture formats on the VIC-20, and I suggested the inclusion of the MG file format. VICE supports screenshot saves for several other native (C64, 264) bitmap/screen formats as well.

[bjonte]

I attended a computer party last weekend and managed to finish most of the intro and the last tweaks on the game. Now only the intro music is left to do before the game is complete. After that and some testing the game can be shipped.

[chysn]

I attended a computer party last weekend and managed to finish most of the intro and the last tweaks on the game. Now only the intro music is left to do before the game is complete. After that and some testing the game can be shipped.

Cool! But what's a "computer party," though?

[bjonte]

Cool! But what's a "computer party," though?

Haha, a party with dancing computers perhaps. It’s my bad english showing itself. Hacker gathering is perhaps a better term. Old people using their vintage computers in the same room.

[bjonte]

Music is done and I have a release candidate now. I'm working on the web page. Only testing is left after that.

[Mike]

Cool! But what's a "computer party," though?

Something like this.

[bjonte]

The game is now downloadable from https://kollektivet.nu/hero/

[orion70]

It's PERFECT . Graphics and look'n'feel very close to the original, impressive music at intro screen, too. Overall, a very good job - a gold medal for me. Played only in VICE because my current setup is 64, but a good reason to clean up the desk .

A huge thank you for having filled this gap in the VIC-20's game library!

[bjonte]

It's PERFECT . Graphics and look'n'feel very close to the original, impressive music at intro screen, too.

Very heartwarming! It’s worth a lot to me. Thank you, orion70!

[Orac]

Awesome work!